Lime Scale and more lime scale

[easternbob]

Holy cow or should I say holy LIME.
In my previous posting about my sidearm that stopped working( https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/side-arm-stopped-working.102277/ ) I thought it was lime and a few of you pretty much confirmed this.
Well I took it somewhat apart yesterday evening and into the night. Took a long time just to deal with the lime. I ended up taking a piece of really hard cumaru (tropical hardwood, decking) maybe about 1/4" square and few feet long, sharpening a point of sorts on the end and chucking that into my drill. After a long while I was able to 'drill' down thru all the lime. Then I switched over to a larger piece of this wood and continue cleaning it out. The came the task of flushing all this crap out down thru the drain valve. That was also harder than it should have been since the globe valve kept getting clogged. In the end I ended draining the whole 80 gal hotwater tank. If the hardware store was still open I would have gotten a ball valve to fix this issue for next time. And there will be a next time I know that, my hard water did not just go away. I installed a cross to replace a bronze tee at the top so now all I should have to do is drain the tank a few inches and then remove the plug I have in the cross and I'll have access with my 'wooden drillbit'
Proud to say the sidearm heated 80 gals of cold well water up to nice and toasty overnight.

 

[maple1]

I still think I'd re-plumb for easy flushing (couple of valves & hose bibs), and periodically flush with CLR or something similar. That stuff is supposed to be good for cleaning your coffee maker so it shouldn't be harmful to use on DHW things?

Glad you got it up & running again though. Get any pics of the mess?

 

[raybonz]

Holy cow or should I say holy LIME.
In my previous posting about my sidearm that stopped working( https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/side-arm-stopped-working.102277/ ) I thought it was lime and a few of you pretty much confirmed this.
Well I took it somewhat apart yesterday evening and into the night. Took a long time just to deal with the lime. I ended up taking a piece of really hard cumaru (tropical hardwood, decking) maybe about 1/4" square and few feet long, sharpening a point of sorts on the end and chucking that into my drill. After a long while I was able to 'drill' down thru all the lime. Then I switched over to a larger piece of this wood and continue cleaning it out. The came the task of flushing all this crap out down thru the drain valve. That was also harder than it should have been since the globe valve kept getting clogged. In the end I ended draining the whole 80 gal hotwater tank. If the hardware store was still open I would have gotten a ball valve to fix this issue for next time. And there will be a next time I know that, my hard water did not just go away. I installed a cross to replace a bronze tee at the top so now all I should have to do is drain the tank a few inches and then remove the plug I have in the cross and I'll have access with my 'wooden drillbit'
Proud to say the sidearm heated 80 gals of cold well water up to nice and toasty overnight.

A water softener will take care of this problem and all your water should be filtered where it comes into your house..

Ray

 

[Fred61]

As Ray said. A water softener is definitely needed. If you don't like the feel of the water with an ion exchange unit, then I would recommend the Nuvo unit that I suggested in your previous thread.

If there are enough minerals to plug your sidearm in that short amount of time, it must be affecting other components in the system.

 

[raybonz]

As Ray said. A water softener is definitely needed. If you don't like the feel of the water with an ion exchange unit, then I would recommend the Nuvo unit that I suggested in your previous thread.

If there are enough minerals to plug your sidearm in that short amount of time, it must be affecting other components in the system.

Once you get used to a fine mesh resin filter you won't like untreated water.. This is what I have here mainly to remove clear water iron but also to remove calcite from the the acid neutralizer.. Hard water clogged my tankless coil a couple times but this went away with the filtering and treatment..

Ray

 

[easternbob]

Ray,
What is a fine mesh resin filter, not familar with that? Is it different from a salt based softener?
Fred,
I looked up your Nuvo unit and I'm a little scared there are a lot of unkind things said about it on the internet. BUT it sure seems like it's working for you.
Thanks,
Bob

 

[raybonz]

Ray,
What is a fine mesh resin filter, not familar with that? Is it different from a salt based softener?
Fred,
I looked up your Nuvo unit and I'm a little scared there are a lot of unkind things said about it on the internet. BUT it sure seems like it's working for you.
Thanks,
Bob

Yes the resin is finer and better able to deal with dissolved iron which I needed to do here. I have 13.2 PPM of clear water iron and it turns orange once exposed to air.My softener is actually rated for 25 PPM of iron..
http://www.apswater.com/article.asp?id=75&title=Which_water_softener_resin_do_you_need?

Ray

 

[raybonz]

Bob I use Autotrol 255/460i-48-M softener here. It's been very reliable and does the job efficiently.. Probably been in service 10 years.

(broken link removed)

Ray

 

[Fred61]

Bob,
I looked at alot of salt free "softeners" and found a ton of snake oil salesmen preaching the magic that their product performed but I couldn't find out what the magic was. This one caught my eye because it made sense. It was developed for the markets that are outlawing salt base softeners such as in Utah.
It works for me. I haven't had to disassemble anything on my DHW system since I installed it. Previously I had to disassemble three particular swing checks on a monthly basis.
Perhaps the bad reviews came from people who had expected to feel a change in their water like more lather from shampoo, etc. That's not what I bought it for and I'm glad I'm not seeing these changes. I bought it to serve as a scrubber and it is accomplishing the task.

When I looked at what was in the box vs. what I paid, my immediate thought was "boy did I just get screwed" but the results make it worth what I paid. I'll bet it doesn't cost them more than fifty bucks to manufacture it. I guess I paid for performance.

 

[easternbob]

Fred,
More questions about your Nuvo....
So you think it's cleaning out the inside of the pipes in addition to preventing further build up?
My wife wants to know if your sink clean and clear and same thing for the shower. Or do these surfaces still show the water film/grime after things dry up?
Are you a salesmen or do you get a cut for each unit sold?
Thanks, Bob

 

[Fred61]

Fred,
More questions about your Nuvo....
So you think it's cleaning out the inside of the pipes in addition to preventing further build up?
My wife wants to know if your sink clean and clear and same thing for the shower. Or do these surfaces still show the water film/grime after things dry up?
Are you a salesmen or do you get a cut for each unit sold?
Thanks, Bob

I had little BBs of rock in the screens of my aerators on the faucets in the beginning. A little difficult to tell on the stainless kitchen sink since it gets wiped down on a daily basis. I hadn't noticed that it had less of a film. Still gets too dirty too fast. There was a subtle change on the bathtub. I can't say that it stays shiny because it doesn't but since my wife still works most of these chores are on my list so I was able to notice a slight change.
Hopefully this information isn't going to be used to give your wife a sales job to aquire the unit because the difference in build-up isn't that dramatic. I do have confidence that it will keep the plumbing clear although I won't guarantee it. As I said, it works for me.
Salesman???? You've read enough of my posts by now to know that nobody would hire me as a salesman. No commisions on the sale either.
I think they had a 30 day trial when I purchased mine. I could tell in two weeks whether it was working or not.

 

[heaterman]

I have used this stuff with good success for cleaning and descaling heat exchangers of all types.

(broken link removed to http://www.boiler-outlet.com/Apex-Rydlyme.asp#Rydlyme-Descalers)